Now, onto the meat of drug policy – what an independent Wales could do differently.
Let’s assume that recreational drugs which are currently illegal remain illegal after independence. What strategies would be available to an independent Wales in order to to “win” the domestic front in the War on Drugs?
Firstly, it’s worth deciding what “winning” the War on Drugs looks like.
Global Examples
- Harm Reduction Lite: Switzerland – Switzerland introduced supervised drug consumption rooms in the late 1980s, mainly to address HIV. Although harm reduction is a key pillar of Swiss drug policy, the laws around drugs remain fairly strict (similar to the criminal justice approach) and drug use is still frowned upon and discouraged.
- Evidence-Based Drugs Policy: Scotland – In 2023, the Scottish Government announced a new £250million, 5-year drugs policy focusing on harm prevention given Scotland’s very high drug death rate. The policy includes the rollout of supervised drug consumption facilities – with the first in the UK opening in Glasgow in September 2023. While the current Scottish Government would like to go one further and decriminalise drug possession, misuse of drugs laws are currently reserved to the UK Parliament.
- Pathway to Decriminalisation: Germany – While drugs remain illegal in Germany, drug addiction (and, by extension, personal use) is specifically exempted as a criminal offence. Germany has long had a public health approach to drugs and the authorities have generally avoided prosecution for possession of small amounts of drugs. Consumption rooms have been legal in German law since 2000. In 2024, Germany decriminalised possession of cannabis for personal use.
Conclusions
Based on what’s been said in the Senedd, my hunch is there would be a sizable group of MSs who would prefer Wales to go down the harm reduction/public health route, but wouldn’t support decriminalisation. So this approach might be a reasonable compromise.
This may be as far as most people are willing to go lest we “give in to the drug dealers” – and that’s a valid point. However, apart from those using medical-grade opioids in consumption rooms, the market will remain in the hands of criminals.
That shouldn’t be interpreted as “giving up” on the war on drugs, more acting strategically to protect people caught in between criminals and law enforcement.
